I guess the American press has been screwing up my name for a long, long time. Below is a copy from the 17 Jan 1845 edition of the Woodsfield, OH Spirit of Democracy . As you can see, not only did they get confused by the name (although they did get it right in the notice for partition), I’m sure they chuckled a little about the Staats Estate. I get mail for all kinds of people: Staats, Stoots, Stout, States, Stoats. On the off chance that someone is reading my name from the printed page and happens to pronounce it correctly, I get suspicious!

A Little Legalese

curtesy (kər-tə-see) – “At common law, a husband’s right, upon his wife’s death, to a life estate in the land that his wife owned during their marriage, assuming that a child was born alive to the couple.”— Bryan A. Garner, editor, Black’s Law Dictionary, 8th edition, (St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson/West, 2004), 411.